Pioneering: A passion for inventing
Amazon's evolution from online bookstore to device manufacturer, publishing service, global marketplace, fulfilment network and cloud computing provider is driven by our passion for pioneering and inventing on customers' behalf. The world's best inventors come to Amazon to build new technologies and services that improve the lives of customers: consumers, sellers, content creators, and developers around the world.
We're a company of builders. Of pioneers. It's our job to make bold bets, and we get our energy from inventing on behalf of customers. Here are just some of the innovations pioneered by Amazon, and we're always looking for the next one.
Amazon Partners with UK Government to explore safe use of drones for delivery
We are pleased to announce a new programme with the UK Government to explore the steps needed to make the delivery of parcels by small drones a reality for our customers.
Technology at work
Over the past 20 years, Amazon has developed from a small seller working from a garage in Seattle, to a global company with 300 million worldwide active customer accounts. In Europe alone, we have a thriving network of 40 fulfilment centers in seven countries. In 2015, we shipped over one billion units to our many customers across Europe.
Amazon Prime
In 2007, Amazon launched Amazon Prime—offering an unlimited one-day delivery membership programme for about a million products. Our vision was that fast delivery should be an everyday experience—rather than an occasional indulgence, and many sceptics thought we were crazy.
AmazonFresh
Launched in 2016, AmazonFresh allows Prime members in hundreds of postcodes in London and the South East to shop from a vast selection of competitively priced products.
Amazon Pantry
In November 2015, Amazon.co.uk launched Amazon Pantry, a new nationwide service exclusive to Amazon Prime members. Amazon Pantry offers thousands of low-priced everyday essentials in everyday sizes, including food and drink, household supplies, baby and child care products, pet, and health and beauty products.
Kindle
Kindle is designed from the ground up for reading. Amazon launched first the Kindle in the UK in July 2010 with the vision of offering every book, ever written, in any language, all available within 60 seconds. We spent more than three years building the original Kindle—a first-of-its-kind portable reader that looked and read like real paper, even in bright sunlight.
UK development centres
With more than 1,500 people supporting innovation work in AWS and our three R&D centres based in Edinburgh, Cambridge and London, these are Silicon Valley jobs in the heart of Britain.
Amazon Web Services
We built Amazon Web Services (AWS) and became one of its biggest customers because we wanted to move faster. Before AWS, we had teams working on new ideas for the business and we found that they kept reinventing the wheel. They were spending the majority of their time on the undifferentiating parts of the infrastructure required to make the idea work. That just seemed backwards to us.
Prime Air
Amazon Prime Air is a future delivery system that will get packages to customers in 30 minutes or less using small unmanned aerial vehicles. With Prime Air, we're developing a system that is safe, environmentally sound and enhances the services we already provide to millions of customers.
Fire tablets
Amazon introduced the first Fire tablets in the UK in September 2012, making it easy for customers to access millions of movies, TV shows, songs, books, magazines, apps and games. Fire tablet also included free storage for Amazon content in the Cloud, and great features like Whispersync, a vibrant color touch screen, and a powerful processor.
Customer Reviews
Customer reviews are a critical part of Amazon. Every day, customers from around the world take to Amazon to write reviews—customers can now upload images, answer other customers' questions about a product and rate one another's reviews—and customers use these reviews to inform their purchasing decisions. Click below to read a few that made us laugh.
Fire TV
In September 2014, Amazon launched Fire TV, a tiny box that plugs into an HDTV for easy and instant access to streaming and catch-up services such as Netflix, Amazon Video, BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4, My5 and more. Fire TV also brings photos, music, and games to the living room.
1-Click
Launched in 1997, 1-Click gives customers the ability to make purchases on the Web with just one click of the mouse.
Build A Great App
No matter what service you build on, or who your audience is, Amazon has the tools and services that will empower you to build a great app. By using Amazon's developer portal, you can distribute your mobile apps, digital software and web-based services—to tens of millions of Amazon customers. You can also sell your mobile apps on Amazon devices, like Fire TV or Fire tablets.
Fulfilment by Amazon
Launched in 2006, Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) is now used by millions of sellers around the world. FBA enables sellers to use Amazon's fulfilment network to store, pack and deliver their products directly to customers while offering Amazon Prime benefits, free delivery, simple exporting, streamlined cross-border trade, easy returns and Amazon customer service.
Innovation for the next generation: Prime Air lab tours
We opened the doors of our Prime Air development centre in Cambridge to local school children, to help engage and inspire the next generation of innovators.
Amazon Launchpad
Introduced in 2015, Amazon Launchpad makes it easy for startups to launch, market, and distribute their products to millions of Amazon customers across the globe. Amazon Launchpad works with leading venture capital firms, startup accelerators, and crowd-funding services to help startups successfully launch around the world.
Prime Now
In June 2015, Amazon launched Prime Now in parts of London, and has since expanded to cities across the UK including Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester and Liverpool – with more to come.
Amazon Fulfilment Network
Amazon employs more than 7,800 permanent employees across its UK fulfilment and customer service centres.
Amazon wind and solar farms
In 2015, Amazon announced the construction of Amazon Solar Farm U.S. East, Amazon Wind Farm (Fowler Ridge) and Amazon Wind Farm U.S. East. The energy produced from these projects is enough to power roughly the equivalent of 150,000 U.S. homes, which is slightly larger than the size of the city of Cleveland, Ohio.
Frustration-Free Packaging
Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging is a multi-year initiative designed to alleviate 'wrap rage'--the frustration of trying to free a product from a nearly impenetrable package. Using recyclable boxes that are easy to open and free of excess materials, Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging is designed to be opened without the use of a box cutter or knife and will protect your product just as well as traditional packaging.
Amazon Marketplace
Selling on Amazon Marketplace enables individuals and businesses of all sizes to reach hundreds of millions of customers instantly when they sell their products on Amazon. Sellers on Amazon can list their products with no listing fee and have their products featured right alongside items carried by Amazon.
Machine Learning: Using Algorithms to Sort Fruit
At Amazon, we’ve been engaged in the practical application of machine learning for many years now. Some of this work is highly visible, but much of what we do with machine learning happens beneath the surface – quietly but meaningfully improving our core operations.
Amazon Business
Amazon Business is a marketplace of more than one hundred million B2B products on Amazon.co.uk, combined with a set of unique features designed to serve the procurement needs of businesses of every size. Purchasing online for businesses has never been easier – it’s everything customers know and love about Amazon, but for business.